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That isn't true. Most of the space a car takes is empty as you need long distances between cars.

Tourists get the majority of the benefit because residents of paris are smoking which is makes clear air not really a benifiet for them.

I thought the above needed a /s, but a check shows 30% of the people in France smoke. (I can't find city stastics)


i kinda seem to remember that this is a bit misleading and the rates are surprisingly different than expected. i'm too lazy to check the sources right now, but gemini gives me a 15% daily smoker rate for paris, while it's ~30% for detroit, 21% for philadelphia, 10% for new york, 5% for L.A.

You miss the larger point not mentioned: all those motorists will be mad and looking to vote for someone next election that will undo it all.

Your job in any political office is not to leave everything as-is and to cement yourself into that position, but to make marginal improvements, even if doing so costs you the next elections or inconveniences people (hopefully only temporarily).

Most of those marginal improvements can only be seen as something positive in retrospective, not while they're being made. While they're being made, they'll always be unpopular, as the voter base is usually not keen on defending the people that are currently in charge. That doesn't mean they won't show up in the next elections, just that they are quieter in the meantime.


in the ideal world maybe - but we don't live in the ideal world: most are trying to get re-elected, or elected to a higher office now that they have experience.

and even in the ideal world a great leader can do more in the next term if they get relected.


car centric areas put their front door far from anyplace a but can easilly get. Either the but slows everyone else down because it is going in and out of all these parking lots and cul-de-sacs, or the walk from the but stop to where you are going is already your entire travel budget.

I think it gets confusing because we start out talking about cities but we'd also like to include other areas that are overrun with cars in the conversation. Buses in Ghent and Paris aren't going to be navigating parking lots and cul-de-sacs, no matter how much car infrastructure is removed. We can free up a lot of room for bus stops, though, which helps keep buses moving smoothly.

Suburbs are either cities in their own right, or part of the whole city. It deoesn't make sense in this discussion to think of them as not part af the city: they cover too much of the population.

There have been many studies on interviewing and what works. Instead this is another anecdote fill article with no indication of data - even though it implies there should be some.

You have to insure each, pay license and taxes... most also need a parking spot.

A car's ownership costs are dominated by fuel and depreciation (which is a proxy for repairs and maintenance - brake pads, oil changes etc). You're probably going to come out ahead of the fixed costs of licensing, insurance, and registration on gasoline savings alone.

The parking spot may or may not be an issue. If you can charge an EV at home, you likely have a garage or driveway. If not, then sure this doesn't apply.

The bonus: with 2 vehicles you can use exactly as much car as needed for each trip.

The EV can be a smallish hatchback or sedan with low-to-medium range. You aren't going too far and won't carry much stuff. It's enough for 90% of your miles driven.

The ICE can be a minivan or SUV, since you'll likely need more space for road trips. You aren't pointlessly driving that hulking PHEV SUV on milk runs.


> A car's ownership costs are dominated by fuel and depreciation (which is a proxy for repairs and maintenance - brake pads, oil changes etc).

Only in the USA. In the rest of the world, taxes and parking fees are also significant. Americans are really spoiled when it comes to low car ownership costs.


> A car's ownership costs are dominated by fuel and depreciation. You're probably going to come out ahead of those fixed costs on gasoline savings alone.

Depends how much you drive. If you don't drive much to start, and then having two vehicles cuts that in half, your effectively-fixed costs go up - e.g. you start having to replace your tires because the rubber is getting too old long before the tread wears out, insurance doesn't scale down linearly for low-mileage drivers, etc.


Depreciation, sure. If you’re buying new of course.

Fuel is very much use dependent. I drive very little so having one large nicer (3 years old off a lease return) made the most sense to me when I had to watch the bottom line. Both financially and quality of life.

I filled up the tank on that thing once every 2-3mo at most. Tires cost more due to simply aging out and the rubber compounds not being as spry as they once were. Other than that it was an oil change once a year. It was a Honda so I think the only repair work I did was a $20 relay that failed I was able to self diagnose, over the 13 years I owned it.

Yeah that’s the extreme end - but there is a lot of middle ground before you get into it being cheaper to have a second vehicle. I do now, but that’s due to owning a ridiculous dream weekend car. Maintaining two cars, insuring them, dealing with less space in the garage for other stuff, etc. really is a giant expensive hassle even if both were cheap(ish) used vehicles.

The math switches once you get to “beater” level cars - but I am far removed from the time of my life where I want to deal with actual car repairs due to things breaking unexpectedly. The used car market also isn’t like it was when I was 22 and broke either. Deals are much harder to come by. I value my time and mental energy far more these days as well.

Different strokes for different folks!

If I went back to a single car I’d likely be looking at a PHEV Lexus or similar class vehicle for a bit of luxury plus reliability. I still rarely drive though so it’s a silly expense either way.


it depends, but for the average driver who in the US is doing about 14000 miles per year the savings will be less than $200/month. that barely covers insurance and taxes leaving little for the rest.

Where are you paying $200/month for insurance and registration? For a $20k car?

Insurance and taxes are about $100 on my 25 year old truck. I replaced it (fuel tank rusted off) a month ago so I don't know what it is on a 20k car yet. There isn't much you can maintain for $100 a month. That 20k car is several hundred a month and mowt people replace them when paid off.

Is that a lot? I pay less than that for full coverage on two cars and liability only on one.

That's more like it. Yes $200/month for insurance and registration on a $20k car is a lot.

You should be able to pick up tools and learn on need. There are better version control systems than git - always have been, but git won despite being worse. (Git was massively better than what was popular before it won) if you can't learn git quick then you shouldn't program at all - there are much harder tools you will need to know and many are company or project specific

Mercurial?

That is the one I know best but there are other options that people I tend to trust say are good. There are more options than I have time to give them an honest evaluation.

cable didn't start ad free. It started because some valley communities couldn't get a signal at all so the put one community antenna on high ground and ran a cable to houses to get normal broadcast tv with ads to each house. a few ad free stations came latter.

I spent a long time thinking CATV on the back mean Cable TV, not Community Antenna TV.

Huh, and I thought it was short for "Conditional Access TV" – i.e. you needed a subscription of some sort.

TIL.


Most often, but this seems to describe the rare exception.

They can but most non gamblers wouldn't partictpate. Many non gomblers won't particitate because they might go to vegas this year and so want the chance.

> Many non gomblers won't particitate because they might go to vegas this year

I’m pretty sure you would see so many people selling their quotas that the price would be dirt cheap.

At the most basic level: how many can afford to go to Vegas? This would be sure money. They’d take it when they need it.


vegas is cheap. Not free, but cheap to get to compared to most other tourist traps. There are a fair amout of free trips to vegas those hopes will keep a lot away.

and most people have ethics and so would not sell. Maybe to someone in the family, but strangers.


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